He shall prepare a way for them April 27, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for all of your prayers this week on behalf of Arles. We were able to see a miracle this weekend because of it. A little background:

 We met Arles about a month and a half ago. He had been praying one day to know where to go to church to change his life of partying and drinking. Later that day, he was driving his mustang down the street and we were biking. We yelled "Hola!!!" He pulled over and we began talking. He threw away all his alcohol later that night and has been changing his life ever since. 

 (He is kind of camera shy. This is him with a mango, in which we wrote his reading assignment) 

1 Nephi 3:7 says:

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father:I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the 

children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Hermana Christensen and I had prayed and had received an answer from our Heavenly Father that Arles was supposed to be baptized this weekend. He too had prayed and received this answer. But there were so many obstacles in the way. Just one of the obstacles was that I got really sick. Because we are in a bike area, there was no option but to bike and we had a big service project that friday on the other side of the island. Long story short, we biked over 30 miles that day, and I felt awful. On top of that, Arles's phone stopped working and we couldn't get in contact with him. At one point I said this simple prayer "Heavenly Father, please let Arles answer the phone." 

​(I was super sick and had on zero makeup)

I have not said a sincere or childlike prayer like that in a long time. But after that I picked up the phone and he answered!!!!

We came to Sunday and he called us that morning and told us he was just too scared to be baptized that day, but we told him we knew it was the right thing and he did too. 

His baptism was supposed to start at 6 last night. But he was still very stubborn and scared. Everyone was there and waiting, but he told us that although he knew it was the right thing, he could feel Satan working on him and he was scared. He wanted to wait until next week.

After about an hour of praying, talking, encouraging and a Priesthood blessing. He said suddenly, "Okay! I'm getting baptized!" He put on his white jumpsuit and was incredibly happy but still nervous. Afterwards he thanked us for setting a "trap" haha because he knew it was the right thing. 

I testify that God prepares a way. If you know you need to do something, I promise you from my own experience, that He will make it possible. He loves us. We are His children. He hears our prayers. The adversary does not want us to obey or be happy, and he will make it hard, but with the help of our Heavenly Father, through the grace and mercy provided by Jesus Christ's Atonement, all things are possible. 

I love being a missionary. I love our Heavenly Father. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

-Hermana Ries